Tuesday, February 21, 2017

On the Mountain with God - Lectionary Reflection for Transfiguration Sunday (Exodus)

12 The Lord said to Moses,
“Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets
of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their
instruction.” 13 So Moses set out with his
assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 To
the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for
Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.”15 Then Moses went up on the
mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The
glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it
for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. 17 Now
the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on
the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses
entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for
forty days and forty nights.

*******

For six
years I lived at the base of a 14,000 foot mountain, for the next nine years of
my life I lived within sight of that same mountain. It’s made an impression on
me, and many others. There’s a sense of sacredness to Mount Shasta, especially
when it’s enshrouded by lenticular clouds. As we come to Transfiguration
Sunday, I can’t help but think of Mount Shasta, and the vision it offers of
God’s sacred presence. To enter the cloud would be to enter a sacred space or
what some call a thin place.

The
story of the Transfiguration is told in each of the three Synoptic Gospels, as
well as 2 Peter 1:16-18. On the day of Transfiguration, Jesus goes up on the
mountain, together with Peter, James, and John, and in the words of 2 Peter,
“he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed
to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I
am well pleased.” On the mountain of Transfiguration Jesus is enshrouded by a
cloud, hears the voice of God, and his countenance changes. It is a moment of
revelation, when the purposes of God are revealed.

Something
akin to the Transfiguration occurs when Moses climbs the mountain in Sinai,
together with his companion Joshua. He goes to the mountain to meet God who had
invited Moses to come and receive the Tablets of the Law, written on stone for
their instruction. Moses doesn’t go of his own volition, but at the invitation
of God. That is, he doesn’t go as a religious seeker, but as one called of God
for a purpose. As any good leader would do, he leaves behind instructions with
trusted leaders, including his brother Aaron.

When he climbs the mountain, “the
glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai.” This “glory of the Lord”—the kābōd
of Yahweh—comes in the form of a cloud. According to the text, this glory
appeared is if the top of the mountain was on fire. At least that’s how it
appeared to the people below. While Joshua went up the mountain, only Moses
entered the Glory of God. Moses and Joshua spent six days waiting on the
mountain for God to make the next move. Finally, on the seventh day, the
Sabbath day, God invites Moses to enter the cloud. In all, Moses spends forty
days and forty nights on the mountain, which will cause some consternation down
below. After all, it appears as if the mountain is on fire. Moses hasn’t
returned. So perhaps something untoward has happened. What will the people do? Ultimately,
Aaron responds to their concerns by creating the golden calf, an idol that can
serve as a god for them in the absence of Moses (Exodus 32:1-6).

Even as the people down below became
impatient and worried that their leader was dead, Moses finds himself enshrouded
by the presence of God, what later Judaism referred to as the shekinah. It is a life-changing experience. Indeed, it
is a transfiguring experience. The Greek word we translate as transfiguration
is metamorphosis. Such is what
occurred to Moses, whose countenance changed, even as it did for Jesus. It was a life-changing experience, though as
Paul suggests, in time that brightness faded, though Moses didn’t want to admit
it (2 Cor. 3:7-11).

This time with God served as the
opportunity for God to instruct Moses, so that he could instruct the people. In
the chapters that follow this reading, God reveals to Moses a number of things,
including instructions for the creation of the Tabernacle and its furnishings,
along with instructions for the priesthood and for worship. When the
conversation ends, God gives Moses the two tablets of stone, upon which were
written the covenant stipulations—the Ten Commandments (Exodus 31:18).

When Moses finally descends from
the mountain he discovers that the people have rebelled and forced Aaron, his
brother and the chief priest of the people, to create a golden calf to serve as
a symbol of God. The lectionary doesn’t invite us to explore the entire story,
just the piece that parallels the New Testament accounts of the
Transfiguration. You can see the similarities. The two events serve similar
purposes. They reveal God’s call on Moses and Jesus, as well as offering a word
to the people. Moses will receive the Law, which will help form the people.

There is something important about
this story and the story of Jesus’ transfiguration. They speak to the
transformative power of spiritual encounters with the Holy. For those of us who
have been formed by an Enlightenment/scientific world view, it is difficult to
imagine such an encounter. We want to explain something that defies
explanation. Walter Brueggemann puts his finger on this very concern, in
writing his reflection on this passage. He writes:

At the core of Christian faith is
an overpowering unutterable disclosure that gives access to the awesome
holiness and moves in the direction of contemplation, wonderment, and grateful
awe. Conventional Protestantism, with tis moral passion, has been reluctant to
probe or consider these matters, being frightened of anything that smacks of
mysticism. No doubt such an accent is just now problematic, given the rage of
gnostic spirituality. But neglect of this dimension of faith may be equally
hazardous. The vision provides the legitimation and energy for Moses and for
all who draw life from this vision. [Brueggemann, “Exodus,” NIB, 1:883].

It is interesting that this encounter with the living God who
comes to Moses in the cloud is contrasted with the embrace by the people of the
mute idol, which Aaron created using the gold given by the people. What lesson
might this offer us in this age of consumer religion. Will we embrace the God
who speaks in the midst of the cloud or the golden calf made with human hands?

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About Me

I am a Disciples of Christ pastor, theologian, community activist, historian, teacher. I'm a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary with a M.Div. and a Ph.D. in Historical Theology. I'm the author of a number of books including Marriage in Interesting Times (Energion, 2016) and Freedom in Covenant (Wipf and Stock, 2015).